With indispensable enthusiasm

There are several healthy signs that, thanks mostly to the Diocesan Synod, there is a wave of increasing enthusiasm in several sectors of society in Malta: long will it remain and increase. There's not much one can accomplish without enthusiasm in daily life.

Indeed there's a world of difference between doing something because you ought to do it and doing something because you love to do it. Nothing of importance has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm. And this holds good not only in civil life, but also in Church life. Once more we feel it appropriate to repeat that what Malta badly needs are not "protests" but concrete "proposals". Very often, people who are wrong seem to talk louder than anyone else.

One is pleased to see so many new youngsters, and adults too, who seem to have well understood that following the Lord is always a real challenge which requires a sustained effort. The opposite of enthusiasm is apathy, staleness, aridity and boredom, by reducing daily life to just a routine.

On the contrary, the energy of youths is so very inspiring and youths, by nature, follow youths. One is pleased to note that several young people are fully aware that each baptised person is called to participate actively, and pro-actively, in the Church's mission so that in our day she may make her presence felt in action. And the Church is active as much as her members are active.

The Church is in the world and exists for the world. It can never accept a role so narrowly spiritual that its Christ-given prophetic voice in preaching the fullness of the gospel is silent or that leads its members, youths and adults alike, to renounce their involvement in society. And this powerful involvement needs a very strong dose of enthusiasm.

No wonder the Second Vatican Council declared that the Church is "to be a leaven, and, at it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God" (The Church in the World Today, no. 40). Indeed, the individual Christian and the people of God can, with the eyes of faith, discern the image of God and the face of Christ in the world and in people.

To all the faithful Christ says "you are the light of the world and the salt of the earth". Together we have to rediscover the lost radiance of the Christian faith. In a confused world the Christian should do his best and remain serene. He should retain his enthusiasm and relish the joys of faith. It is his noble mission to be the diffuser of joy.